How To Watch The Australian Open 2017 Live And Online For Free

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One of the world's biggest tennis events - the Australian Open - officially starts on January 16. Chances are, most of us will be stuck at work when it's all happening. Here's how you can watch the matches at your desk or on your mobile phone for free.

When is the Australian Open on?

The Australian Open begins on Monday, January 16 and wraps up on Sunday, 29 January. The event will be held at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Victoria.

There will be day sessions that run from around 10.30am to 6pm (AEDT) and night sessions that are scheduled to run from around 6pm to as late as 12.30am (AEDT).

Of course, given the nature of the sport it's uncertain how long each of the games will run for. Hard-fought matches can run significantly overtime - such as the 2012 Men's Singles clash between Djokovic and Nadal which lasted an astonishing 5 hours 53 minutes. The draws will be released on the Australian Open official website on Friday, 13 January.

What channel is the Australian Open on?

Channel 7 is the exclusive TV broadcaster for the Australian Open. The tennis tournament will be shown across Channel 7, 7Two and 7mate channels.

Tennis Australia has released a neat guide of the times and the channels the Australian Open will be broadcasted in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth: Click here to download the PDF.

How can you watch the Australian Open online for free?

Channel 7 will be livestreaming the Australian Open on its 7Tennis website. You will be able to select which matches to tune into. In fact, if you want to get your tennis fix in early, the website is currently streaming the 2017 APIA Sydney International.

You can log onto the 7Tennis website on your desktop and mobile device through any browser to start streaming for free. The minimum requirements are as follows:

• You must be located in Australia and be over the age of 15, or otherwise have a parent's permission to use the service. (Author's note: Not sure why you have to be over the age of 15 to watch tennis… maybe this is a bid to prevent kids from blowing up their parents' mobile data limits).
• You must be using a supported device and for optimal streaming we recommend a minimum internet data speed of at least 3Mbps or above.

Please bear in mind that streaming is data intensive and will chew through your data limit if you're doing it on a cellular network. So if you're going to stream the tennis matches, you might want to get on a WiFi network first.

It's also important to note that there will be ads that run during the livestreams. You could sign up for a 7Tennis premium account to see less commercial content, but you can't avoid it completely.

Watching the Australian Open through the Freeview FV mobile app

If, for whatever reason, the 7Tennis website isn't working for you, an alternative way to watch is through the Freeview FV mobile app, which streams free-to-air TV content to mobile devices for free. We've put together an extensive guide on how to use the app here.

You can get Freeview FV on iOS at the Apple App Store and on Android at the Google Play Store.